Stellaris:The Helios Rebirth Book 1:The Federation
by Johnnieboy11
Summary: 10,000 years have passed since the Scourge destroyed Earth. The Migrant Fleet awakens its first 400 Passengers out of 10,000, the best young adults and teenagers we had to offer above their destination planet, a frozen world. These 400 will first need to build a human base on the planet and help reform their species' future either diplomatically, or by an Iron fist.
1. Prologue:Deployment

_Earth... Our home... The cradle of human civilization for the past 200,000 years._

 _She fell._

 _A crippling natural disaster destroyed our home and turned the planet inhospitable. It started slowly, but then developed, each stage killing thousands more. At the rate it was advancing, scientists predicted that our world would be fully consumed in 30 years. It grew like a plague... I was born during year 12 of the Scourge, as it would be called, in New York city. Born to a modest family in its suburbs. I still remember the days when I'd be playing with my friends, then the nights... When the sky turned blood-red._

 _It was a traumatizing sight for me back then. I had barely aged 5 when the first Blood Moon appeared over NY's suburbs. I couldn't sleep. I was afraid, trembling at the sight... Many nights like that one followed._

 _Then, at the age of 15, by request of the few proper scientists that remained and by the Governments that still held within Europe and the US, I and a few of my friends, with dozens of kids and teenagers from other nations, were taken by a conjoined NASA-ESA-ASA program to create an evacuation plan. 'Casus Terminus', the Cause of the End was the codename... For 3 years, we trained to become better than what we were, as the conjoined Space Agencies rushed research and developed technology we couldn't believe..._

 _Finally, in the 26th Year of the Scourge, we were taken aboard the Evacuation Ships, a small fleet of them, in orbit just above Earth... We could see just how far the Scourge had spread. It had eaten the Poles, Africa, Canada, half of Russia and most of Asia. It was incredible, damned awful yet, eerily beautiful. Whatever it was, it was destroying our home... Many of us cried as we were taken aboard the Charon-class Evacuation ships._

 _After we were settled into the Cryo-bays of the ships and frozen, the Space Agency scientists continued their work to prepare our ships, setting the course until, finally, in the 30th Year, at the final, the ships were ready to leave. The Scientists had left us, to our own machinations, the times of thawing us out set and the course laid in... And so, we left Terra, our home... For good._

 _Finally, after 10,000 years of slumber, we awake, at the other side of the Galaxy, our ships untouched and only for us to be greeted by our new home... A frozen world and a new star system... Our rebirth... Welcome to..._

 _Stellaris:The Helios Rebirth_

 _Book 1:The Federation_

* * *

 ** _Time:2 weeks since Thawing._**

 ** _Location:HELIOS System. On surface of Helios Prime._**

 ** _Exploration Team 1. Formed of:Chief Science Officer Adrian Ross, Scientist Ana Marino, Scientist Marcus Greyfax with Escorts:Lieutenant Daniel "Paragon" Shepard and Corporal Cadet Matthew Siegfried._**

The howling winds, signal of the blizzard that had begun on the snowy planet's surface, threw whirlwinds of snow about in the faces of the five exploration team members. Science Officer Ross, much like his fellow compatriots and their two escort troopers, was clad in thick, padded white coats and pants, as well as snow boots, ski masks and goggles. The only thing that differed among the group was the gear each was carrying. Ana, for example, had a Sensor Suite pack on her back, with her hand moving from left to right in a looping motion as the freezing sensor screen in her hand, connected to the battery pack in the backpack by a thick, insulated wire, beeped incessantly.

The sounds of intensifying wind and the crackle of collapsing snow under their boots was about the only thing they could hear as the snow flying ahead of them made it impossible to see five feet in front. Adrian himself was carrying a set of light poles in his heavy-duty backpack, which he kept implanting into the snow at intervals of exactly five feet, to allow themselves to see as they powered up and flashed white. Marcus was the one with the best pair of eyes, raised in Canada's coldest regions that hadn't been touched by the Scourge, he knew well and truly how to orientate himself in such heavy winter conditions.

"How much farther are we gonna go, doc?!" Demanded Daniel with rasped breath, holding his ancient Earth model AR15, with winter camouflage and an ACOG sight which was already fogged up, close to his body with the safety on. The need to yell was normal under such conditions, as the damned wind made it nearly impossible to understand each-other without it and the COM wasn't working either, no matter how many times they tried. The Lieutenant continued his complaint valiantly "Any more steps forward and I think I'm gonna need to be Thawed again! The cold's biting right through my fucking coat!"

"Just a few more steps and we can call it a day, Lieutenant! I have three more Light Markers to place here and we've mapped out our route so far, then we can head home!" Adrian yelled back in response. Dan sighed, then yelled "I'll go prep the Rover for RTB, then! It needs to heat up, especially in conditions like this! This is like the third snowstorm we got this week!"

"I'd suggest taking Cadet Siegfried with you!" The Doctor said, looking back "This snowstorm is clearly worse than the others and you know what Einar said about taking pairs even in easy Snowstorms!"

Dan sighed and nodded "The god damn Viking... Alright, Cadet! Let's haul ass!" before turning about with the young rookie following him, snow crackling and creaking under their weighted combat boots as they ran through the storm, following the light poles left by Adrian and thus vanishing into the waves of snow. Adrian continued his walk, followed by his two fellow researchers as he implanted another light pole into the snowy hillside before going up onto the massive, smooth snow mound.

"This is amazing... Eerily beautiful too." Ana whispered, her Spanish accent resounding. Adrian hummed in agreement as the trio of scientists were awfully close together, enough so that each could check the other's readings for anything. Young Ana had been a singer in the school choir and a damn fine scientist(Her major WAS sciences after all), so she could well read the scanner in her hand. Looking over at the pinging device as a few of its counters spiked up suddenly and maintained the position, the girl said "I'm getting strange readings from up ahead, Adrian! It's... Like an energy source of sorts! About 500 meters out ahead, bearing 0,0,0"

"We'll come back to it! Save the readings on your scanner's USB drive!" the Chief Scientist responded.

"We couldn't have picked a more hostile planet to land on, Chief! We're barely making any progress on our research!" Marcus said, his Berliner accent taking over his voice. Adrian nodded, then sighed and placed the Light Marker atop the hill, before continuing his steps down. "It'll be worth it! We'll find a more habitable place soon, if not make this one habitable, trust me!"

Finally, the last Light Marker had been placed at the other side of the hill. The boy nodded to his two teammates, then said "Let's return! The Lieutenant must be expecting us!" before swiveling about. Ana huffed, then said "Uphill again we go!" before heaving her backpack and placing the handheld sensor back into its holster and running up beside him. Marcus rolled his eyes, then joined the pair as they moved uphill.

"This isn't exactly how I imagined my skiing vacation would be, Adrian!" Ana joked, receiving laughs from both boys, before Adrian responded "Yeah, well, you know! This ain't exactly an easy thing for us either! Hearing you complain is usually the highlight of my day, though! Means we're doing something right at least!"

"Ha Ha, Adrian..." The girl laughed condescendingly.

Following the path back, the group immediately saw the heavily-armored Rover, the first part of it coming to show being the tank-like tracks, then the lights and finally, the massive, boxy white hull with red stripes running across it. Atop the vehicle was a communication antenna that was aimed backward, possibly at Firebase ALPHA, the first outpost that had been built on the planet upon first landing. From aboard the vehicle's cockpit the Lieutenant waved at them, his hood off his face, same for his goggles and ski mask, thus revealing his blue eyes and silver hair(A strange side effect given by the Thawing being this decoloration of hair) and a pale face, with a single scar running from the top-left to the chin.

Beside him, Matt looked over his AR15, his hood off his head. The boy was pale, with blonde hair and green eyes and seemed rather calm, happy even, a strange thing considering the situation they all found themselves in. The Lieutenant stood up from the driver's seat, then left through a back door in the cockpit and opened the back hatch of the vehicle, allowing the scientists to climb aboard. Ana removed her backpack and placed it ahead of herself, being the first one to seat and remove her hood, mask and goggles, only to reveal a beautiful young woman with messy, long brown hair and hazel eyes, her skin slightly more colored than the others, due to her birthplace:The west coast of Spain.

She arranged her hair, setting it back up into a bun as the boys climbed aboard, setting their bags aside onto the seats, with Marcus closing the hatch behind them. The lights aboard the vehicle's hold turned on, allowing the group to see their comrades better. The Lieutenant nodded to everyone and said "Strap in. We're going back to the Outpost. Einar'll want a full report done." before headed back to the cockpit.

Adrian pulled off his face's protective gear and placed his goggles on a seat beside him, before pushing his raven hair back up from his forehead. He leaned himself back into his seat, then exhaled and said "Finally... Warmth..." as the air conditioning aboard the vehicle revved and began to heat the hold. A slight, but sudden jolt that sent the trio slightly tipping to the left(Or right, in Ana's case) signaled the vehicle began moving.

"Excited to come back to what you scanned, Ana?" Marcus asked, removing his goggles as to look at the girl. She smiled, then nodded and said "Yes and no... Yes, because it'd be something _big_ we've found and no, because I'm tired of the cold. _Mierda_ , I could feel the blizzard through my ski mask."

"Tell us about it." Adrian sighed, lowering his head to look at the girl. "I'd be glad to find something to help us get the hell off this world fast."

Ana leaned ahead, then looked to both of them and said with a smile "What do you think we're gonna find tomorrow?" to which the two boys smirked. Adrian nodded and said "I'm betting it's some ancient structure left here eons ago, for us to find and recover tech out of. It'd be amazing to find an FTL drive, some hydroponics items or something of the sorts."

"I can bet my lunch for a week it's gonna be a crashed ship. Something to help us find a way off the planet if not colonize another world here, at least." Mark added calmly. He looked out the back window slit of the car, to see lights behind them. Exploration Team 2 was coming back as well. Good. He looked back, then said "Looks like ET 2's coming back as well."

" _Be advised, all crew, we're entering the Outpost. Prepare to disembark."_ The PA voice of the Cadet sounded off. Soon, outside, they saw a massive gate and finally, blue lighting and rock walls. It had been a 30 minute trip from the drop point to here... As they watched the other transport come in, the team felt the vehicle shift and turn, before coming to a halt. The Lieutenant popped the cockpit door, Assault Rifle and chest rig in his hand, then said "We're here, kids. Let's go." before stepping toward the door and pressing the button. The ramp of the vehicle hissed, then clicked and pushed open as steam exited from the hydraulic pipes in small clouds, before the ramp itself opened fully.

The team picked up their bags and clothing, then followed the Lieutenant out, with the Cadet being the last trooper out of the vehicle. He pressed the button and shut the hatch closed, then turned off the vehicle's engine with the click of a button from his remote control. Adrian looked upon the hangar for the second time today. The massive place, built into the rock wall of a mountain east of where they'd been had room for dozens of transports vehicles, with a vaulted ceiling of rock held up by steel support pillars and grating. Six workers were on scaffolding, working on repairing an electrical panel in the far back of the hangar.

Two squads of two guardsmen each were patrolling the hangar, AR15s slung on their shoulders and winter camouflage gear. This place was also considerably warmer, so they didn't need to wear the padded coats that the scientists and their troopers wore. The SEC-Teams here wore tactical combat helmets, with HUD Glasses on their eyes and were clad in tactical combat gear. A type-3 Chest Rig with level V armor plates on the chest, two shoulder pads, each with an ammo pocket that held a magazine, flags on their shirts which showed their nationality and finally, gloves that linked wireless to the HUD glasses, with sensors that read the ammunition of their currently-held weapons.

"Yo, Adrian." Ana said, taking the boy's attention from his gawking. The boy looked to her "Hmm?" before she smiled and said "C'mon. Einar'll want to know what we've found out there."

He hummed, then nodded and started walking, under escort from the Lieutenant and his Cadet. The group went to an elevator that was linked straight to the main command tower. This place was a marvel. It was amazing, what the Engineer corps managed to achieve with so few people in even fewer days. Once everyone had settled in, the Lieutenant pressed a button on the Elevator and it hummed, then dinged and started going up, quiet as the air.

The Lieutenant flicked his base-side radio on, then spoke into it "This is Echo Squad. We're coming up to the HQ. Survey for today's finished."

" _Roger that. Meet you upstairs."_ A male voice with a strong Swedish accent answered. Adrian sighed, then said "That guy's voice never changes it. I'd recognize it even if the Radio was shot to shit."

"Shows how good it is to know someone." Dan said. Despite his looks, he was a 21-year-old man that had graduated WEST POINT military academy and a US Citizen. Formerly, anyway.

The elevator pinged, then the twin doors in front slid apart, to reveal a small command center, with a window that overlooked the outside. The ceiling was, again, rock, but held up by steel braces and the room itself was filled with consoles that lined the walls in an amphitheater design, with the top console being that of the commander of the base. Three consoles were currently manned by research personnel, while the others were offline. On-deck there were two more people. A young man clad in an officer's uniform, but with no equipment on him and a 22-year-old, clad in a Joint Ops uniform.

"Project Leader. Major." The Lieutenant saluted, with the Cadet behind following suite. The two men turned to greet them, the one clad in the Joint Ops uniform with a smile. The Major, meanwhile, sighed, then nodded to the Project Lead and said tensely "I'll be out of your hairs, sir... Lieutenant, Cadet, let's go." before stepping off with them. The two saluted again, then swiveled about and walked away to the elevator. Adrian walked up to Einar, then shook the man's hand with a smirk and asked "What was that about?"

"Eh. The Major coming in to ask about Thaw more soldiers. I told him we can't yet, not until we stabilize food production." Einar responded, calmly. "So, what've you three got for me?"

"East side's been mapped via scanner and we've set up Light Markers." Adrian reported, then he looked toward Ana and said "And?" to which the girl smiled, nodded and said "And we've found an energy signature. Artificial from the first ping. Didn't have time to look more in-detail though. The cold was killing us." and she smiled, then said "Perhaps it's a way off?"

Einar nodded to her, then scratched his chin and said "Didn't get a good look at it, did you?"

The team shook their heads, making the young swede sigh. He nodded and said "Gotcha... Tomorrow's a new day and the forecast said it's cloudy, but clear in the early morning. I'll be sending you out again, to see what you can find. Anything else you wanna report?"

"No. Nothing really." Adrian sighed. "The Major seemed a bit tense, though. Anything we should know aside from the trooper thing?"

"Nothing to worry about, guys. I've got it under control." Einar responded calmly. "The guy may seem like trouble, but he's actually just thinking about the best interests of this little colony. In his own way. You know how hardheaded military can be, especially these Yankees from West Point."

"Worrying, but we'll let you handle it." Ana waved it off "Not like he can do anything. Most of the squads are loyal to you anyway."

Einar nodded, then said "Tomorrow at Eight o'clock sharp. You're going for that contact. Now go get some sleep. I've still got paperwork to complete. Good night."

"Good night, boss!" The group saluted with smirks plastered on their faces, then swiveled about and walked away. Down the elevator shaft and into a tight, clean and bleach-white hallway, the group was forced to walk down one of the 'lanes' in a column, as to allow the others to pass. The place was currently housing about 400 people if the SEC-Teams were included, but they had their own separate barracks, but the space was still bloody cramped.

The team took a right, then stopped at Door 03, for Adrian to pull out his access card. He slid it across the scanner, which pinged, then the door hissed and slid up, opening. Soon, the trio entered their barracks. Two sets of bunk-beds lined the back wall of the cramped room, while in the middle there was a single table, with three seats and a pillow.

A young Asian woman clad in a tank top and long pants with the Japanese flag sown onto one of the pockets sat in the top left bunk, a cast on her left leg, a tablet in her right hand and her left running over it. Without even turning her head to acknowledge them, she smiled and said "Welcome back, conquerin' heroes." With a Hokkaido accent. "Heard you made a big discovery with yer scanner, Annie."

"Blake." Nodded everyone, going to their bunks. Adrian climbed up to the top right bunk, then extended a food tray to the girl and said "Here you go, Kotetsu." to which the girl smirked and took it. Her blue eyes locked onto the food, mashed potatoes and whatever remained of the frozen tofu cans and whatever remained of the Chicken supply that had been cryo-frozen, then flash-cloned. She groaned, then chuckled and said "Chef's surprise again. That's the third time this damn week. Where's the carrot soup?" taking the tray

"I'll ask Monty next time I see him. 'Till now, this is what we're left with" Adrian responded smugly, leaning back. "How's your leg, Blakey?"

"Hammered as hell, just the way ya left it." The girl's grin widened. "But hey, feeling in my pinkie toe's coming back."

"Remind me I owe you a massage for that one." The boy said, flicking his own tablet on. The two down below laughed, then Ana said "Always her, damn it." before the boy responded non-chalantly "I broke _her_ leg by mistake, not yours, Ana. Try and coerce Mark into massaging you." to which Mark responded with a smug " _Oh!_ Hell to the _fuck_ no. I'm pretty sure she hasn't showered in these 2 weeks. I ain't touchin' that!"

"Oi, fuck you, _pendejo_! At least I'm not the one who keeps scratching his nuts every waking hour of the day!" The girl snarled, butting heads with the boy, to which the two at the top bunks looked down and said in unison "Calm your tits, SJWs."

"IS THAT A FUCKING INSULT NOWADAYS?!" Ana barked, to which Adrian nodded and said "Pretty much." before backing up into his bed and continuing his read. Blake smirked, then said "It's just the way things are." Before retreating back to her meal. Mark and Ana stared at each-other, then sighed and got into their respective bunks. Ana told "I'm going to hit the hay. See y'all tomorrow." to which everyone responded with "Good night, Spaniard." making the girl huff. She clapped her hands together and shut off the light in the room, thus leaving only the lights of the tablets on.

 ** _Next Day..._**

The team locked their gear into place, with Ana taking her backpack and slinging both straps over, then locking the harness into place. She was the second-to-last to board the transport truck, followed by Cadet Siegfried. Ana sat down beside Adrian while Siegfried, of course, moved on into the cockpit of the truck. The group looked to each-other, then Adrian bumped Ana's shoulder and said "Ready to go make that big discovery of yours a real thing?"

"Yeah..." The girl said with a smile. Everyone set their masks, goggles and hoods onto their heads, then Adrian said "HIT IT!" as the hatch closed behind them.


	2. The Discovery

**_Time:09:00 AM._**

 ** _Location:Helios Prime, eastern perimeter of the Settlement._**

 ** _Exploration Team 1_**

Treading the path they took yesterday without the deadly snowstorm and its winds trying to knock them off balance, the team found themselves finally advancing upon the scanned object. There was still a mist that didn't open much to the eye, but thankfully the extra scanner, a ground sonar, that they'd brought along would help'em find what they needed. The low ping of the device held by Adrian was locked forward as they went up the hill, to the second-to-last Light Marker.

"Pinging's getting louder from my scanner. Passive energy source detected up ahead, possible structure." Ana reported, holding her scanning tool forward. Adrian nodded and said "Same here. Sonar is giving me a contour of the form of this craft." to which Daniel stepped up and said "You three really think this is some crashed alien ship? What if it's one of ours that didn't make it to a stable orbit in time?"

"We would've known. The first engineers counted all ships in the Migrant Fleet the moment we awoke above Helios. Every single vessel was on the scanner." Marcus responded, before looking to the two scientists beside him. They nodded and Adrian said "Let's go." before stepping onto the creaking snow carefully. The soldiers followed, with the Lieutenant tapping his com bead. "Central, this is ET 1. We're on our way to the target, over."

" _Roger._ " Came the response, from the Major. " _I'm in HQ with Project Lead, tracking your movement, Lieutenant. We'll send more teams should you need it. ET-2 and 3 are nearby. Over."_

"Copy that, sir. Thanks. ET-1, Over and out." The Lieutenant shut off the com, then nodded to his cadet. The two joined the scientists, drawing their rifles and taking each flank of the trio. The group found themselves moving forward and toward distortion... In the air. The group paused, while Adrian continued his step forward, extending his left hand toward the distorted space ahead, before the Lieutenant stepped up and took him by the wrist.

"The fuck you doing, doc?" He asked worriedly, his finger twitching beside the trigger of the rifle. Adrian pulled his wrist away, then said "I'm doing my job..." and he looked to Ana and Mark "C'mon, guys... There's something here. This is a camouflage field." to which the two others nodded, slinging their gear into holsters, then moved forward... Adrian was first to vanish past the camo field, followed by Mark and finally, Ana. The two soldiers looked to each-other, then the Lieutenant sighed and started walking inside too, vanishing behind it. The Cadet followed...

Only for his eyes to gaze upon a massive metallic structure ahead, half-buried into the snow... It had a smooth, rounded hull of silver coloring, with red outlines. The hull itself seemed full of holes to the Cadet, until he realized... Those were weapon ports. In the dozens, missile silos, what seemed to be massive crystalline lenses and even several turrets containing strange weapons resided on the topside hull of the ship. Towering above them all was a bridge and conning tower, its glass shattered by the powerful impact. The air inside the camouflage field was also surprisingly warmer than its outside counterpart, enough so to allow everyone to remove their masks, goggles and hoods.

"My _god_..." Whispered Dan in awe, his hands slumped by his body, rifle still gripped by both. His eyes were examining the ship, his heart racing at the sight. He looked to the three scientists, each bearing wide grins, then to the Cadet, who seemed more awed than all of them. Adrian looked to Ana, then said "This is what you pinged, Ana... A fucking warship." proudly, to which the girl nodded and said "I'm... Amazed. She's a beauty."

"We've got to wait for other teams to get here, doc." Dan told Adrian firmly, to which the Scientist gazed upon the soldier and said "Why? She's right there. We can go in, scan some things then pop out after."

"How do we know its defense systems aren't still operational? Look at the Camouflage field!" Dan said, extending his hands around him to show the dome that surrounded them. Adrian nodded and said "Its energy source is passive. Whatever it is, from the distortion in the camo field, it's failing. I'd rather have info on it before we lose our chance and have to cut our way via plasma torch in there. Call the others and follow us in if that's how you want."

The Lieutenant wanted to retort, but he sighed, then nodded and tapped his com bead again "Central. ET-1. Converge all teams to our location. We've got something big!"

" _Roger... ET-1... all teams... Stand by..."_ Distorted... Jammed by the camo field. Damn it! The Lieutenant gazed upon the doctors, then said "The damned com is jammed... I think they got my message, though..." to which the team nodded. The stroll toward the ship was a quiet, slow one. The two soldiers kept their rifles raised, aimed at the battleship and around themselves, to make sure nothing would sneak up on them. The ship was bigger than they had expected and so was the camouflage field. The entire ship seemed to be two and a half kilometers long, a kilometer tall and a kilometer wide, half of it buried into the snow and ice below. It had many a dozen hull ruptures and scorch marks, symbolizing a battle that must've taken place for it to crash like this onto the planet. On its back, there was an array of sublight engines, all of them damaged or destroyed beyond repair.

"A hell of a lot of salvage here..." Dan mused, his eyes locked on the hull of the ship as they moved toward an opening. What looked like a shell hole from another ship. Adrian hummed, then said "What I'm wondering is just how old she is... If her camouflage field din't jam our radars, then it must be losing power, or must've been around here for a while now."

"A derelict on an alien planet..." Chuckled Mark "Reminds me of the movie _Alien_. Let's pray there ain't no Xenomorphs around."

"Don't jinx us, Mark." Ana muttered, then she pulled out her scanner again and said "Switching to Lifeform detector, just in case." slightly more aggravated. The screen on the handled device switched from an emerald radar with several counters off to the side to a blue radar, that pinged five blue dots within 400 meters. Them. She nodded and said "We're clear... Let's go."

The walk into the main hall of the ship was greeted by the half-melted 'doorway' that had formed due to whatever hit this side of the ship, leaving the massive hole. Walking through it, the team saw the damage was mostly superficial, to the outer hull and part of an inner bulkhead, rather than the entire crisscrossing hallway section here. The lights inside the ship, however, were non-operational. Not even the backup lights if this ship had any such as that. The main hallway that the armor hole went through to was enormous, enough so for their armored vehicle to possibly fit in it. Below their feet was a shimmering field of energy behind a glass catwalk, with sparks being flung about down below from whatever the wiring of the ship was.

Perhaps an anti-gravity conveyor system for heavy-duty gear, supplies and transport ships? They'd have to look deeper into the hull of the ship. Adrian looked to a wall ahead, that was barely lit by the natural light of the outside, then pointed at it and said "Lieutenant, mind illuminating that?" to which the man, though reluctant, raised his AR15 toward the wall and flicked on the flashlight attached to its right... The powerful beam of light illuminated a capitalized Omega symbol, seemingly, with words scribbled below it in a language unknown to the five. The background was white, while the Omega symbol in itself was blue and the writing, golden. God only knew...

"This... Place... It's a former warship?" Matthew asked wearily, looking about at the massive corridor. Adrian hummed, to which Ana nodded and said "It... May be more. The livery and the golden writing, the Omega symbol? They seem to suggest that this ship was home to a big-shot among the aliens that built it. Perhaps even a Capital ship designed for fleet-side command."

"Whatever she was, she sure as hell took a beating." Marcus responded, looking up at the ceiling, to see torn fiber-optic cables hanging above them, sparking blue with electricity. Adrian nodded and said "The Omega symbol intrigues me though... What would a Greek character doing here? What would its purpose be aboard a ship that clearly can't be human in making."

"We might find some control console somewhere." Ana responded, looking at him. "I might be able to access them and get us some info on this ship and its purpose..."

"And maybe some useful research pieces while we're at it. Let's go." Mark added gleefully. The team moved ahead, inching ever so slowly and examining the details on the wall. Each scribbling in this strange language meant something. Each character told a story. But why would someone bother to scribble and scratch whatever this is in this ship's hull? Ceremonial purposes? Rites of blessing? Hopefully, the bridge control console would tell them everything they needed to know... Hopefully.

"She's a big mother..." Matt murmured as they turned a corner. "What's that Heartbeat Sensor showing, doc?" he looked to Ana. The girl nodded, then said "We're all clear. It's just our five heartbeats."

"Thank God... Hostile lifeforms are the last thing we need right now." Muttered Dan, eyes scanning the corridor ahead. His flashlight was barely strong enough to reach it, but a faint flickering blue light in the distance was there to guide them... It felt like it was faintly calling to them, even. The soldiers moved toward, followed by the scientists. Both soldiers slowly moved, eyes locked down the ACOG scopes as they scanned each nook and cranny of the huge cargo-freight hallway. Ever so carefully, the five advanced toward the light, eyes open for anything that may happen.

Slowly, the lights began to strike the flickering, nearly-dead holographic display up ahead. Ana took a quickened pace, despite Adrian's wordless protests trying to hold her back, then she slowed down upon seeing the display... It was almost all a holographic system with strange geometric symbols and characters much like the ones on the wall. These ancient peoples' way of writing, most likely. She sighed, then extended her hand, only for her to be stopped by Mark.

"Really... Are we just gonna touch any button that pops up?" The boy said, to which Ana sighed and responded "I wanna check something, if you don't mind..." Before removing her hand from his grip and placing it over one of the symbols... She gasped as her eyes flashed lilac, then she staggered back and said "Damn..." Grabbing onto her head as she growled, shaking her head and trying to make the pain go away... She fell to her knees.

"You okay?" Mark worriedly asked, kneeling beside her. She nodded and responded in a groan "I THINK I GOT CYPHERED..."

"A-La Mass Effect, I assume." Adrian said, looking at her. She growled, then nodded and staggered to her feet, held up by Mark. She shook her head, then slowly opened her eyes, gazing upon the console... "Sweet Jesus..."

"What?" The group asked, to which the girl nodded and said "I... Think I get it now..." before walking slowly, under her own power, to the console. She placed her hand into one of the holographic spheres and the other, over the 'keyboard' containing all characters. She slowly placed her finger upon one, to feel a small glass 'platform' of sorts hardening under the index's pressure. A screen formed ahead, showing the character.

"This thing's a command prompt... Like our oldest personal computers back at home... This is these aliens' binary code!" Ana excitedly announced, to which Adrian and Mark high-fived. Mark then looked to the girl and asked "So, can you open these doors? Allow us passage further in?" to which the girl swiveled about, with a smirk and cracked her fingers, then added "Oh boy, watch me! Computer geek powers, activate!"

Soon, the girl was typing 70 binary characters per second, an incredible speed for any normal human. The two soldiers looked back and took a knee, aiming their weapons around from left to right. Adrian watched as the door up ahead came to life, hissing as steam escaped its locks and hydraulic pressure from the old liquids began to release. The door thrummed, then lit up blue in the middle, which contained a semicircular shape, then slid apart, revealing a gigantic hangar, in which old, rusted fighters, presumably, lay to rest in their holding cradles. The strange delta-winged craft weren't even rusting and their blue paint remained present, if a bit faded. They were large craft, clearly meant to be operated by multiple people at once as the cockpits seemed to house five seats.

"Jesus Christ..." Dan uttered out in pure awe, looking about. He looked up to the ceiling of the place, only to see more cradles with more fighters with ladders leading above to long catwalks and finally, the ceiling itself, with a gaping hole in the middle. Snow had of course settled on some of the upper craft and many of the cradles were empty up above.

"This ship served as a freaking carrier..." Adrian said with excitement gleaming across his face, much like a kid in a candy store back on Earth. "All of these damn fighters are still intact... They're amazing!"

"This is one of two hangars... We're at the port side of the ship, guys." Ana told them calmly. "This thing could house up to 200 Strike craft from the looks of things."

"How'd you figure there's 2 hangars?" Mark woefully asked, before Ana pointed at a massive alien character on the wall, then said "That character represents '2' in their linguistics... Wait till I tell everyone about this! I learnt an alien language!"

"By getting zapped, nonetheless... Pretty sure a 'controlled shock' a day is what got you through Harvard."Mark muttered within earshot of Ana, thus receiving the flipped bird from the girl whilst they walked through the place. Adrian laughed, then sighed and said "You two never change." whilst Dan and Matt looked at the ships around with awe. Matt looked to Adrian, then asked "Think we're gonna get to use those at some point? They seem in working order."

"Maybe we'll get to build our own, honestly. These things have been here for god-only-knows how long." Adrian returned as they walked toward one of the few other personnel-sized doors in the place. This entire area seemed to be destined for the transportation, rearmament and deployment of the Fighters, whilst the corridors outside brought supplies, perhaps? Could they also have been landing funnels?

A lot of questions to answer...

The team kept quiet as they reached what they could only presume was an elevator. The strange, rounded container had been revealed by the first door they stepped to and it made a strange humming sound. On the left, there were holographic buttons, each with its own characters. Ana stepped up to the controls as everyone walked aboard, then pressed one of them and said "Bridge... We should be able to get info from there if I can reroute enough power."

"That how you opened the door back there, then?" Dan inquired, to which Ana smirked, then nodded and said "Better I did... Would've taken us months to cut into that door... You saw just how thick it was." before turning back to rerouting power to the Elevator's systems. She tapped a few more commands, then said "Hang on... Setting speed up higher."

The boys felt a pit form in their stomachs as the elevator car sped up, but were surprisingly not on the floor yet. Stabilizers, perhaps. The elevator kept on moving, quietly, into the ship's conning tower and finally, into the bridge itself. It made no noise, but simply halted, allowing for the doors to split open, to reveal a large, cavernous room in which Snow and Ice had formed across both the floors and glass screens of the consoles. Only one console, that of the captain, was still online, its holographic display shining crimson, instead of cobalt blue as was seemingly normal for this ship.

The team scattered throughout the bridge that contained dozens of consoles, most lined up against the outer walls. The ones in front of the captain's chair, however, were partially sunk in snow. Ana walked toward the captain's console, with Mark close behind her, while the soldiers kept their eyes peeled and Adrian attempted to check up on all consoles, see if any of them still worked.

None... Damn it...

"Oh, holy shit!" Ana yelled, backing off. Adrian looked back, followed by the soldiers. They moved up to the captain's chair, then Adrian asked "What's wrong?" to which Ana gazed upon them and said "I think I may've turned this thing's shipboard AI on..." just before a figure clad in a large cloak materialized from pixels ahead of them. The two soldiers raised their rifles, but soon lowered them as Adrian yelled "WAIT! IT'S A HOLOGRAM!" and looked at it...

" _Hamr a'vaa..."_ It spoke, its voice gruff, distorted.

"What did it..." Adrian looked to Ana, who nodded and said "Emergency protocol..."

" _Mar Am Hass..."_

"Has been disengaged. Emergency Protocol has been disengaged..." Ana said, looking at the AI. It stared at each person in the room, then spoke in pure, clean english " _You... Are not of my creators' kin..."_ to which everyone, Ana included, gasped. Ana nodded, then slowly said "N-No... No, we're not. We're humans." to which the AI responded simply " _You bear genetic similarities to my masters, though you are much younger... You must listen... My power is f-f-failing..."_ The hologram stuttered as its projector got static " _You m-m-must take the knowledge aboard this vessel... I-I-I will give y-you access to all avai-i-ilable research. I-I-I assume you came here on basic fossil-chemical p-propulsion systems?"_

Everyone nodded calmly. The AI hummed, then said " _Very well... My masters' knowledge is now yours, 'Humans'... And so is the Cypher to decode it... Utilize it."_

A strange holodisk popped up from a slot in the chair, which Ana quickly retrieved, then asked "What about you? Can't you-" and the AI interrupted " _I have far exceeded my lifespan... I am barely stable enough to deliver this data... Please, forgive me for not being of more use."_ It said, bowing its head. Ana sighed, then said "Nothing we can do?" to which it simply shook its head and said " _I am afraid not... So, followers of my Masters, Humans... I bid you goodbye... May the Scourge not touch you as it has us... Not again..._ "

And just as everyone was about to jump out and ask what it knew about the Scourge, it began to disassemble itself into pixels, before vanishing into thin ai away from them. It knew of the Scourge. Its masters had to deal with it... What in Earth's holiest places would it mean by that...? Ana looked to everyone, then said "So we leave this place with more questions than answers... Cadet, hand me my laptop for a moment... I want to see something."

The boy removed his backpack as Dan looked about, rifle lowered, then asked "It said we were similar to its masters... I wonder what it meant..."

"Lost history, I think..." Adrian sighed. It irked him. He looked to Ana as she took out the holodisk, then placed it into a slot on her laptop that was specialized for this kind of thing(Humans had long ago developed holodisk tech and basic holographic projection), then gasped, eyes widened, before she uttered out a shocked "Peta..." and looked to Adrian and Mark, her eyes gleaming with excitement "THIS THING HOLDS 3 PETABYTES WORTH OF DATA! HUMANITY BARELY GOT TO THE TERABYTE IN OUR LIFETIME!" before she turned back and started looking over the data. Her Cypher worked on translating the FIRST TWO subsystems... She squealed, joy overtaking her as she said "THIS IS LABELLED 'FASTER THAN LIGHT TRAVEL'! THEY'VE GOT AN FTL DRIVE ABOARD THIS SHIP! WE'VE ALSO GOT ION ENGINES! OH MY GOD!"

 ** _-Play OST:Sora no Kodou(RITA)-_**

"What?!" Mark and Adrian gasped, then looked at the cypher, it slowly translating the items on the screen. They gasped as they saw the girl's hands running over the keyboard with lightning speed, each word being re-typed in basic English out of the FTL drive file. Data, information, propulsion basis, REALITY-TEARING?! The core in itself read as a 'Slipstream Space Drive'...

"JESUS CHRIST! ANA?!" Mark said, looking at the girl. Ana smirked, then said "I'm translating it as fast as possible. All of it!" joy overtaking her as she barely even looked at the screen. Data rolled across, from core size, to propulsion necessity, EVEN TO FUSION GENERATORS! This was a God-damned treasure trove! Even the Soldiers stared excitedly at the discovery, with Dan bearing a wide grin as he inquired gleefully "So... This means for us?"

"It means we're going out there! This stuff is INCREDIBLY easy to mount on a basic vessel! We can even retrofit our Cryoships to house these cores!" Ana responded happily, looking over the Fusion Cores and their safety protocols. The final few words were translated almost immediately by the girl, then she shut off the computer and said "We've now got prototypes for Ion Engines, which won't consume our steadily-decreasing fossil and chemical fuel source allowing it to be used on our ground vehicles and... We've got Slipstream Space Drives at the ready..."

As if seemingly by a godly gift or twist of Fate, the camouflage system outside failed, the shield retracting, only to make way for ET-2 and ET-3 to join in. Adrian ran to the main windows of the bridge, drew his binoculars and gazed through the Heads-Up Display that calculated distance (1200 meters in this case for the vehicles of both ETs) and saw them. He smirked, then said "ET 1 and 2 have arrived... Radio contact re-established. Call Central, Lieutenant... Tell them we've found a way off this place..."

"Roger!" Dan smirked, saluting. He flicked his com-bead on, then said "Central, Central, this is Exploration Team 1! We've discovered the structure, confirmed to be an alien ship and have entered! Be advised, PROTOCOL ONE in effect! Repeat, PROTOCOL ONE in effect! ET-1 has discovered a massive treasure trove of Alien data and resident Cryptologist Ana Marino decrypted the Alien language, revealing to us propulsion systems! FTL Drive and Ion Engines acquired!"

A deathly silence with the usual crackle of the com was there for a few seconds, only to be overtaken by Central's voice as he said, joy clear in his voice " _Copy you loud and clear, ET-1! PROTOCOL ZERO! You lot have a party waiting for you back home!"_ with the background cheers from the base-side crew to boot. Adrian locked gazes with ET-2's truck, to see a man hanging out the back waving at them happily, his hood and mask off and a grin wide on his pale face.

 ** _Outpost..._**

The return home was filled with cheers and singing, but the greeting at base beat it... The base crew had literally rolled out the Red fucking Carpet for the team as they arrived and stopped their vehicle in their designated parking spot. The 400 members manning the base had all turned out to greet the conquering heroes, Blake included(She, the Major and Einar were the first ones at the front) as the crew hatch in the back popped open.

"THERE THEY ARE!" Einar said with a grin "OUR HEROES ARE BACK, EVERYONE!" to which cheers erupted across the entire hangar. As the four others were hailed by everyone, Adrian went right for Blake, who was grinning widely, then said "Victory at last!" throwing his hands up into the air. Blake smirked, then dropped her crutches and jumped into his arms and yelled "You crazy bastards actually did it!" as the boy hugged and spun with her slowly. The two laughed, then the girl said "Forget the massage. I owe you something big for this one, Chief."

"You owe Ana things too. She basically did most of the work aboard the ship." Adrian smirked, looking at the Spanish girl. Blake rolled her eyes, then hobbled over to the girl and hugged her too and said "Nice work, you crazy Spanish bitch! God, I wish my leg wasn't fucked, I'd have given you a swift kick to the nuts!" to which Ana laughed and said "Good to see you too, shortstuff! Feeling good about this victory too, are ya?!"

Einar placed a hand on Adrian's shoulder, taking him away from the 'affectionate' meeting between the two girls, then said "Nice job out there, guys. You've got the entire Migrant Fleet riled up. Just this morning, two of our engineers left to see whom they can awaken to help mount these new items to. Have Ana download the stuff over into our computers whenever you can."

Adrian nodded and asked "So, what's this whole fanfare about?" before a champagne hit him right in the gut, thrown by the Major, who was grinning. "What do you think, Chief. It's not just fanfare. It's a god damn party." then he tilted his head toward Blake, who'd gotten her crutches back and was smiling. "Your girl's waiting for you, Chief. Go on."

Adrian sighed, rolled his eyes and walked toward the girl and asked "What's up?" before she said "Can you help me get back to our room? I've got something there that'll help us take the edge off... Aside from the champagne ol' Man Bradford tossed ya." adding a smug grin, her face beet-red. The girl's long, auburn hair was also let down and kind of dirty. Adrian sighed, then said "Very well..."

 ** _-Play Bad Girlfriend by Theory of a Dead Man(Uncensored)-_**

And after a while of passing through greeting crowds, the two found their way up the stairs and, finally, into their room. The girl pushed open the door to the common showers and said "Wait 'till I call you..." to which Adrian's brow quirked up questioningly. She went in with a smirk and shut the door as the boy sat down into his chair, placing the champagne down onto the table in the middle of the room. He twiddled his thumbs as he waited for the girl to call and looked about, only to notice her Katana hung on the wall beside her bed. The sound of high-pressure water hitting the marbled floor sounded off and the boy gasped as soon as he heard "I'm ready! C'mon in!"

"B-Blake are you sure?! Water's running! Aren't you taking a-" She cut him off and yelled "Just come on! Trust me! Also, clothes off! Don't want to get them wet, do we? Bring the champagne too" to which the boy swallowed. Oh crap... What to do... what to do? What to fucking do!? Thoughts ran into is head over and over as his face turned redder than a tomato... He heard her call again "COME ON! WHAT'S KEEPIN' YA!" before he quickly started to undress. Now, only in his underwear, the boy opened the door and walked into the common shower, to the sight of thick steam taking up most of the place as all 4 shower heads had been turned on...

"Uhm... Blake?" The boy asked, looking about. He swallowed and his voice slightly cracked "What's going on?"

He felt something soft and... warm... come up behind him and rub up against him. Two hands were placed firmly upon his torso, one upon his chest and one upon his abs. He heard a soft giggle from behind her as the hands moved up and down, respectively, then Blake's voice whisper "You've been working out..." Softly into his ear. He froze, then asked "W-What are you d-doing, Blakey?" to which she once again giggled, more sensually this time as her left hand removed his undies, then answered "Oh~... I'm just... Trying out something~..."

Oh Crap... Stiffy... He felt her lips softly peck his ear and her breasts rubbing against his back, making him gulp down some spittle, before the girl giggled lightly into his ear and said "Well... That's blown me out of the water... It's _bigger~_ than I thought it'd be..." to which the boy stuttered "B-Blake... I-I honestly d-don't think this is a good idea... What about your l-leg?" as her tongue ran over the left side of his neck. She stopped, then said "Cast's gone, sweetie... I'm okay now... And you deserve it~..."

 _"This isn't how I thought I'd spend my night..."_ Adrian thought... Among other things. Her pressure was too much. He felt her touch him about everywhere, before he decided to swivel about, grab her by the arms and pin her to the wall which held the shower heads. "Might as well make the best of it..." he smirked, looking down at the beautiful woman before him, her skin glistening in the artificial light of the showers, beads of sweat and water dripping down to her legs... She smirked at him, then said "Mmm~ Getting feisty, are we?" as she grabbed him into a kiss... Her tongue slipped into his mouth, then she said "I love you..." as the two pulled closer together, bodies pressing against each-other...

 _An hour or two later..._ Ana and Mark had walked into the room...

"Ho... My... Fucking... God..." Ana wheezed, a grin wider than thought possible on her face. Her eyes weren't deceiving her as she walked up to Mark's bunk bed. She giggled in a whisper, then pulled out her camera and took a picture of the two lovers, both of them covered by Mark's blanket, Blakey asleep on top of Adrian, both of them with blissful smiles on their faces. "This is _too_ fucking amazing..."

" _Literally_..." Mark whispered, wide grin on his face "Can't believe my eyes... She finally had the guts. After nearly 12 years since they met and were pulled into the training program, she finally takes the initiative and pins him to the bed. This is a day to remember. Guess I'm sleeping top bunk, then." to which the girl smirked and said "Good night, boss... Let's shut off the lights." before clapping her hands together. The two got up to their beds after night fell and fell asleep.

* * *

 ** _AN:I am NOT SORRY. Honestly, I had this planned from before I started the story and I DIDN'T WANT TO WAIT MONTHS TO SET UP THIS. Basic story, they knew each-other for 12-13 years, went to school and trained together, in the meanwhile Blakey developed a crush on him, which Adrian was too dense to see and she finally had the guts to show it to him, BIG TIME..._**

 ** _Anyways... 'Till next time (And 'till this story possibly gets removed because OF SMEXY TEIMZ BOI), TOODLES~!_**


	3. The News Broadcast

**_HNN(The Colonial News Network)_**

 ** _A month since derelict discovery_**

 ** _First Broadcast:Freedom!_**

 ** _"Hello, new Awakened and old vets of Helios alike! This is the Helios News Network, with your host, Andre McNamara! I myself am a fresh Awakened, of the second batch that wishes to thank the 400 brave pioneers that set down on Helios and discovered what they did, allowing the new 100 to be returned from their hushed caskets. In the news program today:'The Council Forms!', 'Faster-Than-Light!' and 'The first Station!'"_**

 ** _-Images roll across screen, with the new Colonial Council. Chairman Einar is shaking hands with a young asian woman clad in an engineer's uniform, with the Major saluting and Adrian grinning, tablet in hand-_**

 ** _"Today marks the start of the Colonial Council and the formation of the new Human nation, which we will build among the stars. After the discovery of the strange Alien derelict that had crashed here long ago, the Thawing of 100 new people was prompted by Council Chairman and Project Leader Einar. The 'Circle of Five', the main chamber now welcomes both the Chief Quartermaster of our yet unnamed nation, whose organization will be providing us food and supplies as we colonize, and also Chief Engineer Xen-Hua, with her 24 other subordinates. Among the 100 other awakened are 25 more military troopers which will join the SEC-Teams after training, 24 Agriculture specialists(Aside from the Chief Quartermaster) and 25 Scientists."_**

 ** _-The images switch to the Research Labs within Helios Outpost, showing Adrian leading the other scientists into the research, with Ana utilizing her laptop to translate and print out several more blueprints-_**

 ** _"FTL Drives may no longer be just a Science-Fiction dream! As the Alien derelict, now dubbed 'OMEGA' by the young woman who discovered it, and that spurred cries of joy among us 'ET' and Sci-Fi fans, was searched, many items of interest were found and Exploration Team 1 has returned with a treasure trove of data and information to aid us in our advances, including non-chemical and non-fossil propulsion systems known as 'Ion Engines', which will allow us to keep our dwindling supply of chemicals and petrol for use in other fields. Scientists estimated a month ago that, within weeks, they'll have working Fusion reactors and within two months, a working FTL drive to mount onto one ship that is currently being refitted for out-of-system exploration duty and research. Within 30 days, ladies and gents, the first few brave explorers will be Thawed and sent out to the first Star System outside our home one!"_**

 ** _-The final images shown are taken from space, in orbit above Helios Prime. A massive station formed of two prongs and a central dish appears on-screen, painted black to fit with the background. It has a large, ribcage-like cradle which now holds the ship undergoing retrofit, a large block-like ship. The Engineers and several automated machines are working on it in EVA suits with tools in hand-_**

 ** _"Finally, the first orbiting space station has been completed. Dubbed 'Cradle One' by the Engineers, this station was put together meticulously over the last few weeks by machines and engineers, via continuous in-and-out-of-atmosphere flights. The Station itself will serve as a ship building and retrofit station, as well as a trade and transportation hub for those who wish to become colonists. The current crew of the new Science and Exploration Ship, dubbed the 'Magellan' in honor of one of Humanity's greatest explorers, will be Thawed shortly from within the Cryo-Bay."_**

 ** _-The images switch to the 17-year-old African-American boy, who was bearing a grin and was clad in winter clothing-_**

 ** _"That's it for this broadcast of the Helios News Network. Andre McNamara, signing off!"_**

* * *

Adrian looked over the Outpost once more with pride, from the Command Post. It had expanded deeper into the mountain range they embedded themselves into as safety, but with buildings and smoke horns now creeping up from within the snowed-on rock. He exhaled, then said happily "Man. Place is finally bristling after a month and two weeks of just sitting around, eh?" looking back to Einar. The man nodded with a grin from his seat, then said "We owe you guys a lot still."

"I think the fact that I lost my virginity is payment enough, Chairman." Adrian joked, making his friend chuckle. "I'll say, how about this, Adrian... You be the one who leads the _Magellan_ into the first expedition?" to which Adrian stumbled, then barked "M-ME?! THIS WAS SUDDEN!" allowing Einar to nod. "Yes, you. You and ET-1. You're our main discovery specialists and I know, there's still a lot to discover here on the planet, but you guys need to go BIG. The other teams can handle this."

Adrian looked to him curiously, then asked "How do I pitch this to Mark and the girls? I don't think they wanna leave so quickly after our victory." to which Einar sighed and said "Easy. You tell them it's an executive order." then added a smile to the mix "Plus, they will want to look about outside the Star System. It has been a month and a half of living in a cramped, underground bunker, dude. I imagine they'd wanna jump ship as soon as possible. It's also because I want to get as many people out of Cryo as soon and as fast as possible... We need the manpower right now."

"What do we do if we encounter something hostile?" Adrian asked, looking at his friend with slight worry "The _Omega_ was a Warship. It was bristling with everything from point-defense Pulse Laser weapons to fucking laser lances and even anti-ship missiles and torpedo tubes. This thing could've leveled the entire continental US if we so much as pissed them off. Plus, it's 12,000 years old, fact confirmed by the scans. 2,000 years before we even discovered Space Travel was possible, these guys were duking it out with another possible hostile species."

"In that case, you retreat onto a planet and hide to the best of your abilities..." Einar responded, walking back toward one of the many consoles in the HQ. He continued as he took a pair of Soda bottles "I've drafted a First Contact protocol as per request from Major Bradford and have all sensors aboard the Cradle One on long-range scan. Something enters this system, we'll be on high alert long before they even lit their thrusters" before tossing one to Adrian. The boy caught the old coca-cola glass bottle with the company sigils, then smirked and popped the cap off and took a swig. Einar sighed and looked outward, at the fields of ice and snow outside and said "We could turn this place into a proper Earth, even if we'll be living in underground cities, but the fact is, I and you want to see our kids, when we have any, grow up to see the sun, feel its warmth..."

Adrian sighed "What one wants falls below what he needs. Our priority is the safety of our people, buddy. We're 17 and 18-year-olds and 20-somethings tossed into a shitstorm..." He shook his head, then took another swig and said "I bet Bradford told you this, but we may want to focus less on expansion and more on mining, shipbuilding and rearmament."

"He did. But we also need resources." Einar returned, then he took a swig too and shook his head, before continuing "Our mineral reserves are running low and we can't go deep enough into this planet's crust with the tools we have. We didn't even get a proper seismographic scan of the place. Hell, for all we know the top crust is snow and rock, while underneath it's fucking lava."

"What about the system's asteroid belt? Can't we send a few mining crews into it? Convert a ship, add heat shielding to it to protect against debris and start digging? Maybe set up a permanent mining base?" Adrian asked each question in quick succession. Einar nodded and said "One:Survey drones are on their way from the Cradle. Two:Again, Survey drones and three:We hope we can."

Letting out an exhasperated sigh, Adrian said "Well, Revered Elder..." He said, raising his bottle with a smirk "Our good Chairman... We're officially a spacefaring race. One that will finally traverse the bounds of its homeworld's frontier, to a new hope and a new beginning... Into _space... The final frontier..."_ to which Einar burst into laughter and shook his head. "We're naming a Starship the _Enterprise_ just for that!"

Adrian chuckled, then looked to Einar and said "Alright, I guess. I'll go talk to the team. Tell'em of our new mission. Good luck up here, Chairman." then he swiveled about to leave, before Einar yelled again "You'll also be getting two people with you! An MIT Graduate and a Harvard one!" to which Adrian gave a thumbs up as he went down with the elevator. Einar sighed and said "Wait 'till he hears it's Doc Vahlen and Doc Shen..." before taking a sip of the soda.

* * *

 _ **Cafeteria.**_

The entire Cafeteria had been built and expanded just over a week ago, with over 40 tables able to house the 500 settlers. The tables were neatly lined up grey, long, steel dinner tables with same-length benches made of steel as well. On the right side was the buffet that served all the food. Only half the tables were scarcely occupied as miners returned from their jobs below to eat at lunch break, but at one table, Ana, Mark, Blake, Dan and Matt were sitting together, eating (apparently) freshly-cooked french fries OUT OF REAL POTATOES!

"Hydroponics fucking outdid themselves..." Matt said with a mouthful. "These things taste like the ones back home."

"Heh..." Blake smirked, then nodded and said "I know, right?" before she looked to the left as footsteps sounded off. The girl's smile widened as she saw her lover approaching, food tray in hand. He nodded to her with a smile, then sat down beside her and said "Listen up, guys. Chairman wants us to head on out within the month with the _Magellan._ Find the fist solar system to colonize."

Every one of the five present froze, looking at him, with Matt suddenly choking on his food. Adrian nodded and said "I know, too sudden... I told Einar the same thing, but hey, you don't disagree with the Chairman." and he looked to everyone "So... You guys up for it? If not, I figure I can try and talk to the Chief to-"

Everyone absolutely nodded with excitement plastered on their faces. Even the soldiers... It shocked Adrian to say the least. "You guys know what this could involve? Alien encounters? We'd probably die if one of them just sneezed in our general direction." To which Everyone still nodded. He rolled his eyes, then chuckled and said "Suicidal bunch... I knew I picked you well!" before looking at his food.

"You know, this could be awesome, actually." Blake mused, looking at her food. "We could be meeting strange new life, exploring new worlds..."

"Please, don't give us the Star Trek speech..." Ana's palm collided with her forehead. Blake stuck her tongue out mockingly at her Spanish friend, then rolled her eyes and said "So, a month's time 'till the FTL drives are actually set up for the test run... Question is how do we communicate with the Outpost?" to which Adrian nodded and answered "We could try building Sublight Com Buoys to deploy."

"Don't you think that would be a little too... I dunno, weak?" Ana inquired. "We need something able to transmit through Slipstream, but that'd be... What... I wonder."

"I think our boys in the Communication department can help with that." Dan said, tilting his fork toward them. "We'll tell'em now."

Everyone looked to him in awe, then Adrian smirked and said "We'll take the offer... Tell them to concoct something with our current Slipstream understandings and we'll get it inducted into the ship. I'll have to tell Einar about this, but he should agree, if it means keeping contact." then he raised his glass "Everyone ready to go to the Final Frontier?!" with everyone hitting their glasses slowly against him, grins wide as they yelled "HELL YEAH!" then downed the contents.


	4. FTL

Preparations were underway within the lab, to test the first contained Slipstream Space tear, what would basically become a teleport for the ships. A wormhole, so to speak, allowing their science vessels to pass through unabated. The Research teams(About 20 people in number currently in the lab) watched eagerly from behind lead-lined glass as the small variation of the SSD(Slipspace Drive) spun in its containment field a new resource, discovered with the Blueprints. Antimatter. What allowed the drive to rip holes in space-time into the surreal and not-understood dimension known as the Slip.

This version of Antimatter, unlike those found usually in black holes and wormholes, was an artificially-made, more stable variation of the same thing. In front of the FTL drive was a small model of the ship to be sent through FTL, for a SHORT Distance. A few feet at best... Ana arranged her glasses and labcoat, her tablet in hand as she looked toward the device. She inhaled, both excited and fearful, then said "Radiation levels?"

"At safe levels." Reported one of the doctors, calmly, as he looked over his terminal.

Ana nodded, then said "Coordinates are set... Begin trial..." her body tensing as the FTL drive's hum enhanced in sound, its electromagnets spinning. Lightning arched out of the central dark matter sphere, a ball of black with an aura of white surrounding it. It flickered in and out of existence as its the magnets spun, focusing it... "300 RPM. 400... 700." Said the voice of the doctor at the terminal. Everyone was at the edge of their proverbial seats. Once it reached 1000 RPM, it could tear the hole... Within minutes, Ana, sweat droplets falling from her brow, watched as the spin reached 1000... And finally...

A blue portal appeared ahead of the ship... It began surrounding and enveloping it in a bubble of blue and black... Before said bubble and the ship flickered out of existence with an arch of lightning that struck the innermost layer of glass on its side. Within seconds, the bubble reformed on another table in the testing room and then flickered out, revealing the ship model. Everyone gasped as relief washed over them... Ana smiled, then said "Test 100... Complete..." and exhaled, her tenseness fading as she leaned onto the glass, cheers surrounding her from the 19 other researchers. She chuckled, then said "Transportation results:100 out of 100 tests passed. For God and Country, boys!"

Everyone shook hands and hugged, a champagne cap popped and Ana laughed as she picked up the com, linking her straight to HQ, then reported "Central, Chairman? Operation:New Worlds is a-go! FTL Drive tested. Full test run complete. We're ready to start manufacturing and installing the big one aboard the _Magellan._ " her smile never fading. She heard cheers once more inside the HQ as the operating crew on the consoles celebrated another in a string of quick victories.

" _Roger that. Well done, Ana."_ Einar spoke over the com, calmly. " _We'll be deploying you and the engineers to the Magellan as soon as the Supply shuttles return to deliver food to the ship. The Major will also be sending a 20-man Squad with you as a security measure, aside from the 15 other scientists and 20 Engineers. You'll be loaded up with people, so make sure to ration your food."_

"Roger that." Ana sighed happily. "RnD out." And she flicked the com off, then nodded to everyone and said "Alright, all of you! Prep for us to deploy aboard the _Magellan_! We need to start up installing the Fusion Core and FTL drive ASAP! Ion Engines are already being worked on by Engineering, so we'll have more freedom of travel. In the while, I want us to also have solar panels as backups, just in case, so pack your photovoltaic cell packs and get ready!"

"Yes, ma'am!" The others yelled happily. The girl nodded, then opened the sliding door with her card and walked out of the place and down the hall. Walking past her was a squadron of 5 soldiers clad in Hazmat suits(Without weapons), escorting an Engineering officer, one of the foremen, to the reactor room, that was farther back, past the Lab by a kilometer. She nodded to the troopers, then walked away.

Soon finding herself within the confines of the Hangar, the young woman looked ahead, to see the shuttles that had landed to load supplies and the battalion of people about to board the passenger-ready shuttle... The XV-23 Supersonic Atmosphere Intrusion and Extrusion Vehicle, SAIEV, also known colloquially as the Spacehawk, was a lightly-armored shuttle similar to Earth shuttles and aircraft, in that it had delta wings for Atmospheric flight that led all the way to the back, to both main rocket engines and to the multitude of secondary thrusters that formed the main propulsion system. There were two smaller rear wings at the back of the vehicle, both angled at 45 degrees and linking together at the tips, to form a sort of single, open, reversed V shape. The aircraft also seemed to have omni-directional thrusters for Space travel.

Several hardpoints were mounted under the wings as well, each able to store extra fuel tanks for the vessels, or they well could be mounted with AMRAAM missiles, to serve as space-defense fighters. Pretty much useless, should they meet any ACTUAL force that wishes to oppose them. They'd be dead within the hour if they met any hostile empire... But that was just a chance the team and the world apparently were willing to take.

Blake smirked, her Katana by her hip, as she saw Ana approach. She bumped Adrian's shoulder and said "Looks like doc Cypher's finally ready." before nodding to Ana as she walked up to them and said "So, I hear it'll be another 2 weeks for us to mount the FTL. 2 more to leave. You ready for this, Annie?" to which the girl nodded and weakly answered "A bit shivering, but yeah, I'm ready for the big jump." then she smiled and nodded.

"Good... We're gonna be away from this place for a while." Adrian said from behind Ana. The girl looked back, only to see the squadron of soldiers, Lieutenant Dan and Cadet Siegfried included, behind the Chief scientist, who was smiling. He nodded and said "Good job, Ana. I hear the FTL tests worked out just fine and that the first Fusion reactor's about to come online in the base. That'll save us a lot of power."

"Blake actually did most of the work for the Fusion core when she came about the place." Ana said, looking to her friend. Blake nodded and said "Glad to have been part of it, girl. I'm piloting, by the way." words to which Ana's eyes widened and all her color flushed out, leaving her pale. Adrian patted her on the back, then said "Mark's already aboard with the other docs... Let's go." before boarding the shuttle via a side ladder. Ana shook her head, then took the ladder after Blake boarded, then looked up into the cargo hold... Several boxes of food, weapons and water were present, ammo included for the weapons in smaller boxes placed by the side of the main containers.

The troopers boarded the craft after Ana, whilst the girl sat down next to Blake and Adrian and looked over her tablet for information. Statistics and data from the tests was scrolling across the screen. All data seemed nominal, all calculations, et-cetera. Everything was great, so she'd let it at that. Shutting off her tablet, she saw the ship's quartermaster nod to Blake from the doorway. Blake smirked, stood up and patted boy Ana and Adrian on the back, before adding "Here we go, guys." as Ana strapped herself in. Adrian sighed, then chuckled and said "This woman's gonna be the death of us some time soon..."

"I'd bet..." Ana was shivering by now as she prepared her bags and gear for the sudden, possibly jerky and crashy takeoff. Adrian rolled his eyes and said "It's fine. She piloted the shuttle down here too and-ohmygod you're right." as his attempts to comfort the young Ana led to him realizing just how messed up their situation was. He tightened his seatbelt, then said "I love her, but I'm not gonna die thanks to being to trusting..."

The entire SEC-Team that came aboard followed suite as they heard the convo between the two, locking themselves tightly into their harnesses. The main door of the vehicle closed and, finally, the board lights came on, lighting the cargo hold up bright red. A short screech from the PA and then one more, longer one, meant the woman was testing out the system. She then spoke calmly " _To all passengers of Shuttle 3-7-3, stand by. We're preparing for immediate takeoff and orbital burn. We will arrive at our target in approximately two hours. Please, make sure all cargo is safely secure to the floor of the ship and that you, yourselves, are strapped in tight."_ and with that, the PA switched off.

"Wow. Seemed to follow protocol that time..." Ana muttered to herself worriedly. Adrian nodded and sighed, then said "Hang on, just in case..." as he felt a slight shift to the front, meaning the craft was moving. The rumble outside and the thunder of the inside airvents meant the aircraft was pressurizing and preparing for takeoff. Soon, everyone felt a gravity field envelop them and the entire inner hull of the ship, only for them to realize the Artificial Gravity fields had been activated.

The ship probably went nose up, if anything. The team barely felt it... But soon, the rumble of the engines intensified and, within moments, thunder echoed from outside. The team felt gravity fields collided for a second, yanking them with over 10 Gs of force into the side of their chairs as the vehicle lunged off its launch pad and through the atmosphere at Mach speed.

Soon, the shuddering ship calmed down as they finally exited the icy atmosphere. Blake's voice came over the radio once more as she spoke happily " _Boys and girls, we're in Orbit and about to dock with CRADLE ONE. Please, make sure your seatbelts are fastened, your seats are in a straight position and that your food trays are locked safely in place... Thanks for flying with Air Helios!"_

The entire crew aboard laughed and cheered... A young woman with red hair and a strange arm-side tattoo smirked, drawing one of her pistols(Unloaded) and a cloth. She started wiping it as she muttered "What a crazy bitch..." with a cigarette in her mouth. Adrian looked to her, then asked "Hey. Who're you?" to which the girl looked to him, her almond eyes locked onto him and a smirk wide on her face as she held the cigarette between her teeth "Nobody you need to worry about, Egghead. Just another SEC-Team member."

A bald afro-american boy with skin more brown than black nodded, looking over his sunglasses, then said "We're Bravo Lima squad. There's four of us in total with our tech geek and our quartermaster." to which Adrian nodded and said "Nice to meet you... What's your name?"

"Dutch... The girl is Revy. She's our best gunslinger that seems to enjoy being mysterious as of late." The black boy mocked the girl. She rolled her eyes, then huffed, sending a small cloud of smoke through her nostrils, before removing it from her lips and flicking a bit of ash into a tray and saying "I was trying to act cool, Dutch. ' _Cool_ ', not mysterious. Know the difference, will ya?"

The man shrugged, making the young woman roll her eyes. She looked to Adrian and said "So, your girlfriend flying this bird? She didn't tell ya anything about me or Dutch, did she?"

"Nope." Adrian responded. "Though I did see you guys talking back in training, now that I think about it. Before the Scourge shat on everything we ever loved." To which Revy laughed and said "Yep, that was us. Me, Blake, or Rocky Road as we call her and Dutch. Close friends since high school and well, she's our Tech Geek. We'll be serving with your unit from now on, pal."

"Well, holy shit..." Ana and Adrian said in unison, eyes wide. Revy's smirk didn't fade as she slung her pistol to her hip, then she sang in a rough, but cool voice " _Get down, on your knees, get a good head on your shoulders_!" as the ship clanged and docked into the main hangar of the vessel, presumably... Blake came out of the cockpit, with the other two pilots, then said "Alright, lads! We're landed in the _Magellan's_ hangar! Gear up and let's push the supplies on board! The two other drop ships are already here!"

The gangplank of the vehicle opened, a massive ramp that allowed them to unload the supplies. Six engineers jumped into the vehicle bay and started undoing the straps for the supplies, with the Chief Engineer walking aboard with a smile, followed by a young, blonde woman with a labcoat, green turtleneck, brown jeans and work shoes. The Chief Engineer was a young chinese man with hair that had been dyed silver. His work uniform had the name 'Shen' etched on the left of his chest. The doctor arranged the hair bun on the back of her head, then spoke in a half-german accent "Hallo. You must be Exploration Team 1, the commanders of the _Magellan._ I am Chief Scientist Moira Vahlen. This is my colleague." and she waved her hand to the engineer

"Raymond Shen." the young boy nodded. "Chief Engineer aboard the _Magellan._ I and my teams will be handling repairs and aiding you in the induction of the Slipstream Core and Fusion reactor to the ship. Our probes have found suitable asteroids for mining and twelve mining ships are already moving out to deal with our supply problems." and then he smiled at everyone. Adrian nodded, then said "I'm Adrian. I usually run Chief Researcher, but I guess I'll let you have it this time, Doc Vahlen." With a smirk. Vahlen, showing slight discontent, but also a bit of surprise and joy, smirked too, then said "Ah, Adrian. It's been how many years?"

"10,003, if I recall correctly." the boy taunted, crossing his arms. Blake looked between the two, then asked "You two got a history?" to which Moira nodded and said "Let's just say I and him used to be an item." making Blake's eyes widen. She looked to Adrian, who nodded and said "Used to be is a nice way of putting it, Moira. You still haven't gotten over the fact I let you go?"

"Everything was running so well, so why? That's all I want to know." She asked, pushing her glasses back up onto the bridge of her nose. Adrian sighed, then said "You were a bit manipulative, trying to give me a time to do everything, Vahlen. Let's just say I didn't really take kindly to having myself restricted to actual time limits. I wasn't a 5-year-old on curfew anymore."

Moira rolled her eyes, sighed and said "Very well... I will be in my labs. Doctor Shen, you don't mind escorting the teams to the bridge, do you?" in an almost angry tone. Shen shook his head and said "Of course not... Good day, Doctor Vahlen." before nodding to the team. Vahlen left for one of the many elevators in the Hangar, a massive cavernous structure with several support beams and such hanging above, from the gunmetal-grey Titanium ceiling. The other shuttles were all landed on lifts that led to a lowered storage area below, thus clearing space for more such ships to land. Behind them, there was a massive titanium door, locked and pressurized. Possibly the way the ships entered the hangar. Eitherway, it was an interesting sight to behold.

The team followed Chief Engineer Shen all the way to an elevator, then up with it, all of the exchanging Small-talk in-between the floors, until, finally, the team reached the top floor, where the ship's main bridge resided... Walking inside, Adrian's eyes widened at the sight... The place was an amphitheatric design again, with a large reinforced glass window in the rising star shape, that allowed him full vision of the outside. The consoles were off to the sides of a walkway that led down from the Captain's chair to the observation window. There were three consoles on each side, on each level, adding up to six consoles per level, that adding up to about 24 consoles as there were four levels.

"Well, holy shit..." Blake smirked, walking inside of the place. "If she ain't a fancy brick, I dunno what is..."

"Uh, sir? I have to ask.. What happened to the pods?" one of the younger engineers behind Adrian asked. Shen looked back, then nodded and said "The shuttles transferred them to the Outpost before refueling and picking up the supplies. There's a special cryo-room now, able to hold all 10,000 subjects... Nobody told you of this, guys?" and the entire group shook their heads.

"This is about as big a surprise to all of us as the fact we've found an alien derelict, dude." Revy said, chewing on a bit of gum. "Who's gonna captain this boat anyway?"

Shen pointed to Adrian, who froze for a moment. The entire crew's jaws dropped collectively. Adrian pointed at himself, then whispered "M-M-M... Me~... I'm gonna be a fucking starship captain?!"

"Orders straight from the Chairman, sir." Shen smirked, saluting. Blake looked to her lover, then smirked too and brought her hand up to her forehead and said "Captain on deck!" thus making the entire group grin and salute. Revy smirked, then said "Welcome aboard, capt'n! Just give us the order and we'll hit the deck and start working on mounting our gear and items in the armory!"

The boy, still dumbstruck, nodded, then saluted back and said "U-Uhm... Alright... Get your asses in gear then... And start mounting that damned FTL drive!" a small grin forming on his face. Everyone yelled "YES SIR!" proudly. Blake walked up to him, then kissed him on the lips and grabbed him by the collar "Next time I'm up here, I wanna see you in your captain's uniform... In your room... I'll deal with the rest. Now, I'll head off." And she kissed him again on the side of the neck, making him twitch, before she backed off with a smirk and her cheeks burning red. She and the others walked away, to leave Adrian to his command.

"Holyfuckthisisawesome..." the boy let it out in one wheeze "I'mgonnabecommanderShepard! :D"


	5. The Jump!

**_A month later..._**

The Military loaded up their weapons into their barracks after training. Zero-gravity combat training had taken place inside the ship's Gravity Denial Laboratory, a section directly built for Operations in the Vacuum of space. Rebecca Williams, Revy, checked both of her pistols, then spun them around her fingers and slid them into the holsters on top of her bunk's locker, before sitting down and removing her boots.

She locked eyes with everyone in the room. Most of the escort squad had to be her age and she was only 18. To boot, the Lieutenant was 20-ish. She didn't know his full age, only that he'd been bumped up to commander of the entire SEC-TEAM unit aboard the _Magellan._ The group all readied their weapons and such, then set them into their lockers and such. She saw Dan walk in, rifle leaning on his shoulder with a smile. Everyone immediately stood up and saluted.

The Lieutenant nodded and said "Everyone! Prep! Slipstream drive has reportedly completed installation. We're awaiting for the word from Engineering to prep for the jump. Until then, I want all gear safely stowed away and ammo prepped. Contingency plans if the Jump fails have been created, but I doubt we'll need them. Godspeed, everyone. That's all. Dismissed!" And with that, the El-Tee left as fast as he'd arrived. Revy and Dutch exchanged glances and the merc girl shrugged with a smirk, before sitting down on her bunk again and loading up the last items of her gear.

On the bridge, Adrian was seated in his chair, leaning his head onto his arm. Shen was on the bridge and so was Vahlen. Shen's eyes were locked onto the screen on his console, the closest at the top to Adrian's seat. On it, footage of the team installing the FTL drive's final pieces and locking the room played, before it faded and Ana and Blake's faces appeared on. Ana nodded and told them "We're a-go! Sims have also been run one final time and the checkups are complete."

"Roger that, ms. Ana... We're ready up here as well." Shen reported, looking to Vahlen. The young German doctor nodded, then inhaled and grabbed onto the console with her left hand and spoke into the microphone in the right, her voice weary "All crew! Prepare for immediate departure and slipstream transfer! Yellow alert!" and she shut off her mic as the lights around them took a dim, yellow color. She inhaled as the starfield ahead began to move. "We're decoupling now... Decoupled from Cradle One. _Magellan_ is away..."

"Calm, Moira..." Adrian said, his mouth covered by his palm "We ain't dead just yet..."

The doctor exhaled, then said in annoyance "Thank you for the comforting words, Chief..." Running her fingers softly over command prompts on her console's touch-screen. She looked ahead, watching as the Cradle vanished behind them. She exhaled, then said "Nearly three months of staying here and here we go... Deploying first Slipstream Communication Pod."

A thunk outside sounded off as a small pod dropped and aligned itself in orbit. Vahlen nodded calmly "Complete..." To which Adrian said "All ahead, half-speed. Get us clear of Helios' gravity field..." and soon, he felt the velocity enhance slightly... The ship's engines thrummed and the hull vibrated lightly at the power of the main reactor's power. Shen looked over a few charts, then said "Power spike from Fusion core. Well within safe levels." He inhaled, then looked to the sensors officer. The girl nodded, then said "We're out of the grav-field..."

The FTL officer reported "Slipspace capacitors charging. Calculating exit vector... Be advised:I barely know what the hell I'm doing here... I got a crash course from the docs, but this'll be my first jump."

Vahlen groaned, whilst Adrian smirked behind his hand "Roger that, Jones, we're in your hands." and gripped his chair. The girl nodded, then reran over the procedure for the thousandth time in her head. Her hands ran over the holographic keyboard and coordinates in the form of numbers printed onto the screen. She nodded to herself with a smirk, then said proudly "Course laid in. Out-system jump... Stand by. All crew, hang on! Five!"

Everyone tensed, gripping onto their chairs and consoles.

"Four!"

Rivers of sweat ran down everyone's backs. Everyone at home and aboard the Cradle was watching this... If they failed now... No, they wouldn't...

"THREE!" The woman's voice cracked. She inhaled as her hands placed onto the lever, her fingers gripping it tightly.

"TWO!" Everyone inhaled.

"ONE! INITIALIZING TRANSFER!" Jones yelled, then she slowly pushed the lever forward... The space ahead distorted, lightning arched from the portal ahead... Soon, the bubble enveloped the ship and everyone clenched onto their head and stomach as sudden, strange jolts hit them, their bodies nearly shutting down, before starting back up painfully. The flash of blue outside was then dimmed and the entire crew was greeted by cobalt... The sudden appearance ahead was a massive, blue star... Adrian groaned, then looked ahead, his head throbbing due to the pain, then he said "My God... Did we make it!? Sensor sweep!"

The sensor officer, though fresh out of his stupor, nodded and started scanning... Ping after ping hit everyone's ears and soon, the outside became clear. The pings were planets... A dozen of them. 12 planets, each of them of decent sizes. The Sensor officer put it all on-screen, ahead of the entire bridge crew. There was a massive planet in the habitable zone, about the size of Jupiter, bearing 12 moons, an ocean and archipelagos and small continents. The initial scan was a thorough one... The second one gave the first images and the third one? The third one painted the whole picture...

"Holy... Mother... Of God..." Adrian said, his voice thinned, his knees weak, palms sweaty. Vahlen stared at the screen with as small a smile as she allowed herself at the moment. She watched the planet as its moons spun in slow motion, then said "This is... Almost unbelievable... What kind of luck..." She looked to Adrian "What kind of devil's luck did you bring aboard this ship, Captain?" and smirked. Adrian rubbed his forehead, then chuckled and said "I don't know, Doctor... I do know one thing though... Get us into orbit! Prep a landing team!" and he cued the PA "All crew, listen up! WE'VE GOT A HABITABLE WORLD JUST AHEAD OF US! Similar in our Holy homeworld, Terra, it's got oceans, continents and a few ye olde archipelagos."

They heard hundreds of prideful cheers echo down the halls of the ship and the entire bridge crew save for Adrian, Shen and Vahlen joined in. Adrian laughed, then continued "I'm mounting a team to go down there. I want all available soldiers ready to go! Survey team will contain 5 geologists from the Science Labs and 5 Engineers with good enough supplies to last them a while! The SEC-Teams will be hauling food and ammo! I want two trucks, if we have them, at the ready for deployment with us. I'll be leading the team."

He took his finger off and looked to Vahlen, before saying "Listen, doc, I know you wanna be the first one setting foot on the planet but I need someone to hold down the fort. Keep your eyes peeled up here and warn me of anything..." To which Vahlen sighed, then said "Shouldn't you first send a message to all the breathless people at home, waiting for our answers?"

Adrian rolled his eyes, then chuckled and said "I assume you've already dropped the Slipstream link pod?" to which Vahlen nodded. Adrian sighed, then flicked through into the com channel and spoke "Helios One! Can you hear us! Helios one, this is _Magellan_. We are across the Slipstream."

The short thrumming of communication devices linking sounded off... Before he heard hundreds of cheers echo across the com field, about 5 seconds later. He smirked, then covered his mouth, hearing Einar's voice _"We've copied you loud AND clear, Chief! Glad to hear your voice from across the pond! Tell us you've got something good in that System!"_

"Confirm, confirm, confirm! We've got a Class A habitable planet of a damn fine size! Beginner's luck in space exploration! We're about to begin final spacial survey, then land!" Adrian reported happily, laughing at the same time. He nodded to Jones, who also served as their pilot and said "Take us in... Vahlen, scan it. Shen, get down to the hold and speak to everyone. Tell'em to be good to go the moment I step into that place."

Shen saluted crisply, then walked off deck as everyone settled up into their seats. Vahlen looked ahead as they made a burn for the planet. She looked to Adrian and said "A homeworld?" to which Adrian smirked and said "Maybe a new colony to awaken our people on..." and then he looked ahead. The thrum of scanners sounded off as images appeared on-screen. Geological surveys showing the world's similarity to Earth. The Ecosystem, Fauna and even Flora seemed similar. Hundreds of billions of animals were living on the planet, if not Trillions.

Vahlen smiled, this time widely, as she looked at the data, then said "Home... What will we name her?"

Adrian smirked, then said "Gonna have to vote that one in the Council, I guess..."

"Feels like I'm staring at Earth, just twice as big..." Muttered Vahlen with a smile. Adrian nodded, then stood up and said "I'll be downstairs, grabbing my gear, Vahlen. Good luck up here." with that, he left the bridge. Vahlen sighed, nodded and looked ahead. Meanwhile, on the lower decks, the SEC-Team were scrambling to the transport ship. Each one of them threw their bags inside and quickly took their seats, doing equipment checks. Safeties clicked, guns were cocked and rounds were fed as everyone prepared for a hot drop. Fauna on an alien planet was unknown to them. It could lead to hostilities... Or finding a new set of pets to have around.

Blake and Ana both loaded up their chest rigs with magazines for their Vector SMGs. The soldiers were now bearing forest camouflage and were as ready as can be for deployment. .45 ACP, full drum magazines and stick mags. The weapons had holographic sights and foregrips. The girls nodded to each-other, then walked aboard the ship and sat down beside the gunners. Looking to the left, they saw Adrian moving toward them, a boonie hat with forest camo and bullets wrapped on it. The forest camo spread onto his gear and he had an ACR rifle. He nodded to the girls as behind him came the rest of the RnD team, engineers included and each carrying one weapon or another.

Jack, Revy's team's sniper smirked, seeing the man approach, then said "Yo, Blake. Your boyfriend's here." with a mocking tone. The young woman, Jack, was a girl most unconventional. Born to Marine parents, both a mother and father, she had training from them before being assigned as a SEC-TEAM member. She had shaved her entire head to fit the Tattoos. "Did we decide what to name our big find yet?"

Everyone shook their heads. Jack sighed, then rolled her eyes and put her Mark 2 Combat Helmet on and asked "Well, shit. Think they're gonna put it to a vote?" before Adrian walked aboard and said "Let's leave that to the people on Helios, soldier." before sitting down. Jack smirked, then nodded and said "Aye, aye, Captain." before cocking back the bolt of her Barrett .50 cal. Adrian looked to everyone, then said "I've had a quick chat with the pilots and Vahlen gave them a topographic map of the local area. We're gonna be landing in a clearing just west of archipelago Charlie-Whiskey-1. It's an Amber landing spot, so that's gonna be an alert landing. Keep your gear close and your eyes open."

"You heard the man!" Yelled Dan, cocking the bolt of his AR "Safeties on until we land! Then it's eyes open and fingers on the triggers! Ready up!" and soon, the pilots came aboard. Everyone strapped into the seats and the gear was safely locked onto the floor of the drop ship. Jack hit her helmet twice on the dome, then checked her safety and nodded. The back hatch of the ship, the gangplank, came up and hissed, before locking and pressurizing. The lights went from white, to dark, to crimson and finally, the pilot's voice came overhead "Prepare to launch." and the PA hissed, shutting down.

Everyone inhaled. The ship's engines thundered outside and the artificial gravity generators below the grated floor hummed ominously. Soon, motion reverberated through the ship as they took off. Everyone was calm and quiet, waiting for the moment they'd set foot on actual soil, not on ice or steel. To see real greenery, not white and black, or grey and silver. For once, a real planet...

* * *

 ** _AN:I've set up a poll on what to name the new planet and it includes Sci-Fi planet names from several series tbh. So I want to include the community._**

 ** _See you next time..._**


End file.
